SEO audit
SEO audit that tells you what to fix first
What holds your site back in Google, what is missing and what comes first, in plain language and in order.
A scan lists problems. An audit picks three.
An SEO audit tells you why your site does not get the visitors it should, and what to do first. A scan is a tool that gives you a hundred warnings; useful, but afterwards you do not know what matters. An audit has a person look at your site, your market and your competitors, and pick the three things that bring you the most customers.
Below: what an audit checks in each layer, what the Search Console messages mean, what an audit costs with a worked example, and what you can check yourself today.
What an SEO audit checks
| Layer | What we check | What goes wrong |
|---|---|---|
| Technical and speed | every page in Google, old addresses redirected, fast on a phone | pages Google may not read, chains of redirects, heavy images and third-party scripts |
| Content | which terms your customers type, which page answers which term, what is missing | two pages on one term, a service without its own page, a title without the term |
| Trust and local | who is behind the site, reviews, links from other sites, your Google Business Profile, name, address and phone the same everywhere | no address or team, a profile that does not show, an old address on a directory |
| AI search | whether ChatGPT, Gemini and Perplexity may and can read your site, and what they say about you | a robots.txt that blocks ChatGPT's search crawler, answers that are nowhere short and clear |
Speed is measured against Google's Core Web Vitals: the largest image or text block within 2.5 seconds, a response to a tap within 200 milliseconds, and layout shift under 0.1, at the 75th percentile of real visits, on phone and desktop separately. Measure a page with the website speed test.
For AI search, names matter. OpenAI's OAI-SearchBot decides whether a site can appear in ChatGPT's search answers; GPTBot only collects text for training. Google-Extended controls whether Google may use your content for Gemini, and has no effect on Google Search. Check what your robots.txt allows with the AI crawler checker, and see how we work on AI answers in generative engine optimization.
Four layers, each with its own question
- Layer 1TechnicalCan Google find and read your pages?
- Sitemap, robots.txt and indexing
- Redirects and error pages
- Speed on a phone
- Layer 2ContentDoes every page answer a real search?
- Search terms with proof from Google
- Titles, headings and first sentences
- Duplicate or thin pages
- Layer 3TrustDoes Google trust your business enough to show it?
- Google Business Profile and reviews
- Address and phone the same everywhere
- Links from other sites
- Layer 4AI searchCan ChatGPT or Gemini quote your business correctly?
- Facts in one sentence per page
- Structured data
- An llms.txt with your key figures
Per layer you get what is wrong, what it costs you in visitors and what comes first.
The Search Console messages that matter most
The Page indexing report in Search Console says, per address, why Google does not show it. Four messages come back in almost every audit.
| Message | What Google means | What you do |
|---|---|---|
| Crawled - currently not indexed | Google read the page but left it out | make the page stronger, or merge it with a related one |
| Discovered - currently not indexed | Google knows the address but has not read it yet | check whether the site has too many empty or duplicate addresses |
| Duplicate, Google chose different canonical than user | you named this page as the main one, Google prefers another | make the pages really different, or redirect one |
| Page with redirect | an old address that forwards | fine, as long as it is a 301 to the right page |
A "Not found (404)" is not always a problem: a removed page with no replacement may return 404. A page that moved gets a 301 redirect. Find out why a specific page is missing with website not showing on Google.
What you hold after the audit
- Where your site stands in Google, with your own figures
- The technical errors that cost you visitors, and how to fix them
- Search terms with proof that have no page yet
- Pages that almost rank and need a small push
- How AI search engines describe your business today
- A plan in order, with who can do each step
What an SEO audit costs
| Kind of audit | What you get | Market price |
|---|---|---|
| Free tools | a list of warnings per page, without a choice of what matters | free, such as Search Console and our SEO checker |
| Audit of a small site | technical, content and a plan in order | usually 500 to 2,000 euros |
| Full audit of a large site or shop | all layers, competitors, a search term plan | usually 1,500 to 5,000 euros |
With us you get a fixed price after a look at your site and your Search Console. What each SEO budget buys is in how much SEO costs, and twenty checks in order of impact are in our SEO checklist.
Auditing a site in several languages
Sites that sell in more than one country fail in their own ways: hreflang that points one way only, a language version that copies the original's titles, a market without pages for its own searches. We check each language as its own market, with its own search terms, and the links between them. How a multilingual site should be built is on multilingual website development.
A first check you can do yourself
Open Search Console and look under Pages at which addresses are not indexed and why, with the table above next to it. Under Performance, look for pages with many impressions and few clicks. Search your three main services with your city and note who ranks above you. Open your site on your own phone over 4G and count how long it takes until the first sentence is readable. How long results take after that is in how long until my website shows on Google; what you can fix yourself, and when to hand it over, in do SEO yourself. The technical side is explained step by step in technical SEO.
When an audit pays off
An audit pays most at three moments. Before you have a new site built, so you know which pages and terms your old site already has and must not lose. After a drop in Google, to see whether it is your site or the market. And when you have paid for SEO for months without knowing what it brought. A small site with five pages and little competition often needs no more than the free tools and an hour with someone looking along. If the audit shows the site needs replacing rather than fixing, the website cost calculator shows what that costs. And if your Google Business Profile does not show at all, start with why is my Google Business Profile not showing and local SEO.
SEO
How VBS runs an audit
We ask for read access to Search Console and your analytics, go through every page the way Google sees it, set your market next to it and hand you a plan in order: what to do this month, what can wait and what to leave alone. Each point says who can do it: you, your web builder or us. We walk you through it in a call; what such a plan led to is in the case of Business Centrum. The work after that runs through SEO and SEO copywriting, and for a shop through ecommerce SEO. Book a call.
Curious what holds your site back?
Send us your address and tell us what you want to achieve. We say what an audit of your site involves.
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